Perhaps a future PC OEM 2-in-1 will be successful, based on Qualcomm Oryon/Arm SoC from ex-Apple Nuvia.
> software updates are way longer
There's no "longer" for comparison, when there is no competitor.
Old iPads could continue to work for years, running Linux. Apple could unlock the boot after terminating support.
May sound harsh, but the Open Source movement is just not capable of producing enough software to make Linux a viable on the desktop, let alone on the tablet.
- mouse support under Linux was a fait accompli on the first device I installed XFree86 on back in 1993, That was back in the time of serial mice with DB9 RS-232 connectors, more than 30 years ago. What you call 'smooth mouse support' is rather vague, if you mean acceleration and the likes that has been around almost as long. Want to use a mouse/trackpad/trackball/trackpoint/whatever with Linux? Plug it in and it will probably work just fine.
- proprietary drivers are the exception to the rule that Linux is free software. One well-known exception here is nVidia which still rides the fence. While this is far less than ideal the drivers they produce are not known for producing 'random crashes'. Random crashes in Linux-land tend to be related to hardware problems and would crash other operating systems as well.
- the 'mass market' does not need convincing to use Linux since they use it daily, mostly without knowing they do so. Most of them don't use it on 'the desktop' (well, those running Chromebooks do but they mostly don't know about it) but there is nothing really keeping them from doing so.
You're living in a fantasy where 'the desktop' is an ivory tower where only the anointed incorporated entities are welcomed. This has never been the case and that will remain true as long as the hardware is (or can be made to be) open. Go ahead and install a distribution, I suspect you'll be surprised just how 'ready' Linux is for the desktop unless you insist on it being a 1-on-1 clone of Windows or MacOS and insist on everything working exactly like those systems. It isn't and it doesn't, things works differently between those systems and between Linux distributions. Choose one which comes closest to your expectations - probably Gnome-based if you're in the Apple world, Mate or KDE-based if you're used to Windows - and give it a try. If you want to do so, that is. If you don't want to try it that's fine as well. In that case I do wonder where your adamant statements about 'smooth mouse support' and 'random crashes' come from though.
web browser
IoT control panel
video conferencing
photo frame
e-reader
kioskDoes the Mercedes self-brick after 7 years?
One of the things that keeps fascinating me about Apple is how they keep coming out with better and better iPads, even though they don’t seem to have any real competition. Take the new iPad Pro. It’s super thin, got a brand new tandem OLED screen that goes up to 1000 nits and is decent for using outdoors. They even put a new M4 chip in it which has faster single core performance than any desktop chip by Intel or AMD.
I have an old iPad, haven’t been using it so this gave me an idea.
It's fairly stable. Only really run into issues when the internet goes out and then comes back later, sometimes this would make the app stop showing photos.
https://apps.apple.com/no/app/soloslides-for-google-photos/i...
My work ipad pro is 4 years old, and I can't be bothered to replace it (I can upgrade for free at work, at the 'cost' of having to migrate my apps and data etc...)
My personal ipad mini 3 has been travelling with me until last year, as ebook reader. Sure it was heavily handicapped in the sense that I did not get app updates or any new apps really. But I still have my books and goodreader app, and still had VLC, and until very recently also netflix. That thing was 9 years old and I only retired it because work unlocked my work ipad so I only travel with 1 ipad now.
There is no tablet market, there is an iPad market and "other".